Dr. Nair has earned his PhD degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai in 2008. He carried out his post-doctoral research during the period 2008-2010 in Complex Photonic Systems, University of Twente, The Netherlands. He worked as Dr. K S Krishnan Fellow in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai for the period 2010-2012 and later as Scientist D till 2013. Starting November 2013, Dr. Nair has joined as Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at IIT Ropar. He has made notable contributions in the field of nano-optics such as the observation of sub-Bragg diffraction of waves in crystals, the first ever signature of three-dimensional photonic band gap, and lasing from nano-scale photonic structures. His scientific findings are published in high-impact journals and are highlighted in international scientific magazines like Nature India, Science, and Optics and Photonics News of Optical Society of America. Dr Nair was the recepitant of Dr. K S Krishnan Fellowship from Department of Atomic Energy, National Academy of Sciences in India (NASI) young scientist prize in Physical Sciences for the year 2012, and Indian Science Congress award in Physical Sciences for the year 2011-2012. Dr. Nair was awarded the Swarnajayanti Fellowship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India in 2020 and also selected as one among 75 Indian scientists below the age 50, who are shaping today's India by Govt. of India.
Quantum Nanophotonics/technologies. Quantum Materials and Devices, Meta-materials.
Citation Map:http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=VayY_jEAAAAJ&hl=en
Quantum nanophotonics: Quantum nanophotonics is a rapidly emerging research area which has open new avenues in quantum information and sensing technologies. Color centers in nanodiamonds have been proposed as one of the promising candidates for these technologies. Our group explore the underlying physics of these color centers, particularly the nitrogen vacancy centers. We investigate the emission dynamics of these color centers and couple them with resonant photonic structures to make them more suitable for quantum enabled technologies. Bio-inspired photonic structures: Nature has diverse natural creatures and they possess multifunctional characteristics. We are surrounded by vivid colors of nature that rely on pigment or Biophotonic structures. Our group particularly interested in to elucidate the light-matter interaction with nature-inspired photonic structures. These photonic structures may consist of ordered and disordered structures depended on the refractive index variation. Photonic glasses Several bird feathers possess a short-range order of photonic structures made up of monodisperse spheres and responsible for their structural coloration.Here our objective is to mimic similar bio-inspired photonic structures and understand the underlie mechanism of light interaction. Silicon nanostructures Silicon is indisputable semiconductor material for electronics industry and its nanostructures constantly gaining interest for photonics industries.Here our aim to synthesize the silicon nanostructures using cost effective techniques and explore their optical properties for different applications perspective. Two-dimensional atomic and photonic monolayers: The two-dimensional materials have gained a lot of interest in the present science world because of its unique properties that emerges when layered to nanometer scale compared to its bulk counterpart. In the field of photonics which aims at the control of the spontaneous emission, the periodic modulation of refractive index in two directions has procured a lot of interest. These structures exhibit optical modes of the cavity that can interact with light emitters leading to the Purcell enhancement. Our group is currently working on manipulating the spontaneous emission by coupling the emitter to the optical mode of the two-dimensional photonic monolayers.
State-of-the-art in-house developed facilities for quantum optics experiments, single photon measurements, and spin manipulation experiments using different types of quantum materials.
